arbed – I have nine, plus one remaining foster kitty that I’m still hoping will find the perfect forever home. Most of the nine started out as foster cats and were unadoptable for one reason or another, and so they got to stay.

awwww, thanks guys. I’m swimming in good feelings here.
And I should also say that the others that did not start out as foster cats, were strays that showed up in my backyard. I have *never* gone *looking* to adopt a cat! :o)

ceejoe, that’s how it always happens. My 16-lb, pitch black, double-pawed bruiser Bluto showed up like that. He was the love of my life, my hunka-munka, my grounding Earth Wizard. Life was not kind to him till he came to me. I loved giving him every comfort and lots of love till he passed on [getting teary -eyed here…] Two days later I heard him jingling his tags in the hallway!

Jaypo, you must get shivers every time you talk about the jingling tags!

Edgar was a stray, too. The place I worked at the time had a client who had been taking care of a kitten who had been left behind by neighbours who had moved. She would feed him but couldn’t take him in. She found a home for him, but they booted him out shortly after, for whatever reason. Anyway, I had been thinking about getting a cat, and by this time Edgar was 6-8 months old (I do miss that I didn’t see him as a little wee kitten). The day after she told me about him, he was mewing in my arms. He’s so sweet – I can’t imagine why anyone would get rid of him.

ceejoe, I wish my foster and my cat were like that! Foster boy, Salmon P. Chase, is a sweet but psycho cat who likes to “play” with my cat. “Play” means trying to mate with her (before he was neutered), pouncing on her, chasing her down hallways, and laying on her to bite her head. Not being a playful cat, my kitty has resorted to finding the highest ground she can and defending herself with a well-placed paw to the face.

these are actually my babies! i own the momma, suzie tipples, anyway!http://www.myspace.com/suzietipples
the babies names are [from top to bottom] Zamboni, Nelly, Fresca, Suzette and Mona. They were born on Feb 28th, and are all in good homes and huge now! vique

Five little kitties sleeping in a stack,
All of ‘em snoozing paw-to-back,
I sneaked up on ‘em to give ‘em a cuddle
And fell right into the kitteny puddle.
And there I was floating happily around,
Then one little meow brought me back to the ground.
“Meow, intruder! You ruined my sleep!”
But to my ears it sounded something like “MEEP!”
So I misunderstood him and massaged his paw,
And SLASH! ended up with a nick on my jaw.
Though I’ve learnt my lesson, I can’t help but smile,
Any cut is worth the warmth of a five-kitten pile!!!

Not fair! I just woke up, yanked from my snuggly warm bed by the horrors of the day… and here I see these adorable little snooze-monsters all spooned up and adorable! Luckyyyyyy! *dives into the middle of the stack for a quick nap… okay, maybe a long one*

Yep, like Edgar and Bluto, Cletus is the “love of my life, my hunka-munka, my grounding Earth Wizard,” as you so aptly put it. We fall asleep every night with his head on my shoulder. He found me when he was about 10 months old… ah I could go on all day. :o)

Meg was so right. Kittens really are so lazy these days. How many more of these napping fursacks we still need to bear? And notice – in every picture there is two more than in the previous one. It’s a disease that keeps spreading.

Very soundly sleeping and amenable to being stacked … the twenty little white & pink paws!!
Could I just enter a plea … with all appreciation for the many excellent kitten pictures of late … to those of you with cats, PLEASE get them neutered/spayed?

Just neutered and spayed my latest two rescues, chacha! I’ll admit, I wish there was a less-intrusive way to keep them from breeding than gouging out parts of their anatomy–but I’ve seen the horrible results of the alternative here in my town, and it makes me my vision go red. Supposedly “benevolent” people who think that NOT altering their pets is somehow “kinder”, then dumping the resultant offspring on the side of the road–or worse, turning them loose in the streets to scrounge a miserable life for themselves. Like that’s somehow “better”…*snarl*

That’s how I ended up with all three of my current feline hooligans. One was a dumped housecat, the other two were born in front of my house to two stray parents.

It’s like these mental midgets somehow think that the animals can control their sexual urges as well as humans can. Heck, even humans can’t keep a tight grip on our urge to merge, and animals have a different internal ecology than humans do. Some people just shouldn’t be trusted with anything more sophisticated than a wooden rocking-horse, I swear!

Go TwoDragons! I’m totally with you all on the spay/neuter bandwagon! ALL cats *and kittens* going through our rescue group are spay/neutered! For those of you interested in the s/n issue, check out this website http://www.acc-d.org/ It’s an organization that is working for non-surgical sterilization options for cats & dogs.

Did you try singing your song to the Beverly Hillbilly’s TV show theme song? It works perfectly!

“Five little kitties sleeping in a stack,
All of ‘em snoozing paw-to-back,
I sneaked up on ‘em to give ‘em a cuddle
And fell right into the kitteny puddle.
And there I was floating happily around,
Then one little meow brought me back to the ground.
“Meow, intruder! You ruined my sleep!”
But to my ears it sounded something like “MEEP!”
So I misunderstood him and massaged his paw,
And SLASH! ended up with a nick on my jaw.
Though I’ve learnt my lesson, I can’t help but smile,
Any cut is worth the warmth of a five-kitten pile!!!”

I checked the nonsurgical neut ering page. They do say surgery works best. The idea is to come up with something cheap that an untrained person with not a lot of money can do. So I can see a Kenyan farmwife going out and giving the dog an injection to keep the puppy situation under control. Non vet animal control officers in underfunded areas can use the stuff too. Pretty neat. But speutering is best.

Yay, spay and neuter! I volunteer for a group here in town that goes out to low-income areas with a mobile clinic. We provide free or reduced cost spay/neuter for dogs and cats of senior, low-income, etc. people and also trapped ferals (cats, not feral people).

Re: people not wanting to neuter their pets. I know some guys won’t get their dogs ‘done’ because of an, ahem, emotional transfer of losing their ‘male parts’. Dogs don’t have ego issues, thank you very much.

Then -THEN – I’ve heard you can get your newly neutered dog some prosthetic (trying to find a family website way to say BALLS – guess I just did…).

I suppose if it helps get the real job done, then I shouldn’t roll my eyes at it. As much. I still think it’s silly.

AmyH, no kidding. Don’t we wish we could sleep like that? (I mean, so soundly that people can rearrange our limbs without waking us, not stacked up in fives.)
D2D, go girl. You said everything I wanted to say but was too chicken to! Bok!

Repeat, the Horde has left the Junction! and are now tux-ing away on the back porch, climbing up the picnic table legs and wobbling near the hot tub. MomTux is saying “mRRRRT?” very urgently trying to keep them all in sight and being annoyed with me watching them.

You guys crack me up! I keep coming back to this forum because y’all have the BEST commentaries on the web. Well and I ah um err uh (tries to deny it)LOVE KITTENS!
P.S. I’ve updated the kitty pages on our website and last week I did “home visits” to just to make sure my babies are getting lotsalurve! Lotsapics and running babble! click on the “stingy kitties” penny!

I must build my house like the cat house! (Husband heard my squeals, looked over my shoulder, saw the cat ramps, and has already told me “NO”) That place is NUTS! I like the idea and well-done construction of the ramps. They really went all-out with the detail. Also, the idea of using a sawed-in-half mailbox as a form for making a cat-hole through a wall! Brilliant!!!

Theo, have I mentioned I love you commentary on those videos? I mean, it might have just been a video of a cute cat, but “Ferocious little furballs” and “Sailor in a size 10 boat” just take the cake XD

omg, that Cat House is too cool. Unfortunately, I work really hard at *trying* to maintain a *normal* life in addition to caring for nine cats. :o) People that come to my house are always amazed that it doesn’t smell or is not covered in cat hair. I guess they mean it as a compliment?

Dang, Theo, you’ve got some cuties. We adopted our two cats as adults and when I watch your videos I have a hard time imagining them being so helpless and fuzzy. Wish I could have seen it… (They’re big and fat now.)